Thai Youth Soccer Team Leaves Hospital After Cave Rescue

Twelve boys and their coach stuck in an 18-day ordeal that captured worldwide attention described their experiences inside the Tham Luang cave after they were released from the hospital. (Published Wednesday, July 18, 2018)

What to Know

The soccer team and coach rescued from a Thai cave are preparing to be ordained as Buddhist novices and monks.

They participated in a Buddhist ceremony Tuesday, praying to ancient relics and offering drinks and desserts to spirits.

Buddhist males in predominantly Buddhist Thailand are traditionally expected to ordain and enter the monkhood.

The young soccer teammates and their coach who were rescued after being trapped in a cave in northern Thailand took part in a Buddhist ceremony Tuesday as they prepared to be ordained to become Buddhist novices and monks.

Eleven of the boys and their coach prayed to ancient relics and offered drinks and desserts placed in gilded bowls to spirits in a ceremony at a Buddhist temple.

The boys, whose ages range from 11 to 16, will ordain to become Buddhist novices in a ceremony on Wednesday, while the 25-year-old coach will ordain as a monk, said Parchon Pratsakul, the governor of Chiang Rai province. The 12th team member who was trapped in the cave won't take part because he isn't Buddhist.

Wednesday's ordainment ceremony will take place at another temple on a Chiang Rai mountaintop before the group returns to reside for more than a week at the Wat Pha That Doi Wao temple near Thailand's northern border with Myanmar. That temple is close to the group's homes, making it easier for friends and relatives to visit.

Rescuers Free All 12 Boys Trapped in Thai Cave

The remaining four boys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand were rescued by a team of divers along with their soccer coach Tuesday.

(Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018)

"This temple will be where they will reside after the ordination and I hope they will find peace, strength and wisdom from practicing Buddha's teaching," said the temple's acting abbot, Phra Khru Prayutjetiyanukarn.

Buddhist males in predominantly Buddhist Thailand are traditionally expected to ordain and enter the monkhood, often as novices, at some point in their lives to show gratitude, often toward their parents for raising them. It's believed that once a person is ordained they gain merit that is also extended to the parents.

"Ordinations are supposed to give us peace of mind," said Sangiemjit Wongsukchan, mother of Ekarat Wongsukchan, 14, one of the boys who was trapped in the cave. "We can only do this for nine days because then he will have to go back to study and prepare for exams. Back to his normal life."

Praphun Khomjoi, chief of Chiang Rai's Buddhism office, said the 12 to be ordained will dedicate their merit-generating act of entering the monkhood to a volunteer diver and former Thai navy SEAL, Samarn Gunan, who died while diving during a mission to supply the cave with oxygen tanks essential to helping the boys escape.

The 12 boys and their coach were released from a hospital last Wednesday, more than a week after they were rescued from the flooded cave. They became trapped on June 23 and were finally found by two British divers on July 2. They were brought out of the cave in a daring rescue mission that ended on July 10.

Chiang Rai Gov. Parchon said Sunday that the boys' mental and physical conditions were steadily improving with only minor health complications. He said that one boy, who initially reported that he had rashes, did not appear to have any new ones, and another boy was being treated for a tooth cavity.